Advent Devotional Series Begins Sunday

Just a reminder that our Advent devotional series called The ABCs of Christmas begins on Sunday and runs through December 26. Yesterday I announced that you could download the ebook version free through Monday. After that, it will cost $2.99 in the Kindle store. So please go ahead and download it this weekend. Remember that you don’t need to own a Kindle to use to use the Kindle version. Amazon has made free apps that allow you to read any Kindle book on any device or PC. You can download the free Kindle apps here.

Check out the cover that Josh designed. He came up with the idea and then created the Christmas tree that contains all 26 key words plus 2 more that weren’t in the alphabet (Can you find those two "extra” words?).

This year’s Advent theme is "The ABCs of Christmas.” Here’s the introduction to the series:

Christmas from A to Z

Have you ever tried to explain the real meaning of Christmas to a child? It isn’t easy. There is so much tradition mixed up with spiritual truth that it’s sometimes hard to tell Jesus from Santa Claus and the Wise Men from the snowmen.

Sometimes our children have a hard time understanding what it all means. The first frame of a newspaper cartoon shows a mother reading the Christmas story to her young son. The lad has a puzzled look on his face as he sorts it all out. Then he thinks to himself, "Let me see if I’ve got this straight . . . Christmas is baby Jesus’ birthday, but I get the presents?” The final frame shows him with a satisfied grin as he says to himself, "Is this a great religion or what?!”

I suppose that’s how a lot of people think about Christmas.

When our oldest son had just turned two, we bought him the "Christmas ABC Book.” We kept it for many years until the binding fell apart. Each letter of the alphabet connects with the biblical story in a little rhyme. For instance,

A means Angel . . . An Angel was the first to tell That Christ had come on earth to dwell.

(That’s okay, even though the Bible doesn’t mention a donkey. It is quite possible that Mary did indeed ride a donkey since she was in the late stages of her pregnancy.)

It’s good for children to know the ABCs of Christmas. Even more, it’s good for all of us to see through the tinsel and fantasy to the great story of Bethlehem.

That’s what we’re going to do during this Advent journey. We’re going to let each letter of the alphabet teach us something important about the Christmas story. Along the way we’ll meet the Wise Men, the shepherds, and a bad king named Herod. We’ll also meet Joseph and Mary. Best of all, we’ll meet the One whose birthday we celebrate.

I invite you to journey with us through the Christmas Alphabet as we prepare for the coming of Christ. Let’s start with the letter A . . .

We will post each day’s reading on the blog and social media so you can follow along that way. Remember, you have until Monday to download the free version from Amazon. Tell a friend and let’s all make the Advent journey from A to Z this year.

PS Here’s another way you can help us. Write a brief review on the Amazon page for The ABCs of Christmas. We already have two 5-star reviews. Every good review pushes the ebook up the rankings, and good reviews make people more likely to download the book. People like to read what other people are reading. So write a review if you can. It only takes a couple of minutes and will really help us.